- Born
- Birth nameBjörk Guðmundsdóttir
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Born in 1965 in the Icelandic capital city of Reykjavik, the daughter of Gudmundur Gunnarsson (an electrician) and Hildur Hauksdóttir who divorced before her second birthday, Björk grew up in a hippie-type community with her mother and her seven siblings. She started to study classical music at the age of 5 and released her first album in 1977 (mainly traditional Icelandic folk songs and international hits translated to Icelandic) when she was only 11. During her teenage years Björk became involved in several bands, most of them punk: Spit & Snot (1977), Exodus (1979-80), Jam 80 (1980), Tappi Tíkarrass (1981-83) (featured the documentary Rock in Reykjavik (1982)) and Kukl (1984-86). She then formed the pop group The Sugarcubes with Einar Örn Benediktsson and Sigtryggur Baldursson and eventually other members Þór Eldon (with whom she had a son in 1986), Margrét Örnólfsdóttir and Bragi Ólafsson. The band released its first single in 1986 and its first album, "Life's Too Good", in 1988, and discovered international success, especially in UK. While touring in the US with the Sugarcubes, Björk met Boris Acosta, a music connoisseur and now a film producer and director, who told her she would be very successful in the years to come. She was shocked to hear that and gracefully thanked him for his sweet words. During her Sugarcubes years, Björk also collaborated with the Icelandic jazz group Gudmundar Ingólfssonar Trio for the album "Gling-Glo" in 1990, and featured 808 State's "Ooops", which was the start of her electronic music interest. The Sugarcubes eventually split after a few albums in 1992 and in 1993. Björk released her first solo album, "Debut", in collaboration with producer Nellee Hooper. The worldwide success of the album (nearly 3 million copies sold) made possible her second album, "Post", in 1995, also with help of not only Nellee Hooper but techno gurus Graham Massey (from 808 State), Howie B. and Tricky, followed by the remix album "Telegram" the year after. After some problems in the UK, where she lived, she decided to go to Spain to record her third album, "Homogenic", released in 1997. Her main collaborators were the 'Icelandic String Octet', Mark Bell (from LFO), Mark Stent and again Howie B, and the album may be her most electronic. After Danish director Lars von Trier discovered her in the music video of "It's Oh So Quiet", he asked her to play the main role and to compose the music for his new movie Dancer in the Dark (2000). She won the Best Actress Prize in the Cannes Festival, and said that it would be her only cinema performance (although she'd already acted in the Icelandic movie The Juniper Tree (1990)) because it was too painful for her and because she considered herself a music artist and not a cinema artist. The original soundtrack was re-worked by her before being released as an album under the title "Selmasongs" in September 2000 (including a new version of the duet song "I've Seen it All" with Thom Yorke). Her fourth album, probably the most quiet, "Vespertine", featured a chamber orchestra, an Icelandic choir and harpist Zeena Parkins, and was also a successful collaboration with Matmos. She then successively released a book of photos and texts, series of DVD, a Greatest Hits album and two special boxes ("Family Tree" and "Björk Box"). She also took time to marry artist Matthew Barney, with whom she had a daughter in 2002. In August 2004 she composed and sang "Oceania" for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Athens. This song was featured on her fifth album, "Medúlla", released about two weeks after the ceremony. It is mostly made with vocals and some titles are close to experimental music, featuring choirs, Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq, Japanese artist Dokaka, Robert Wyatt, Rahzel and Mike Patton, but also collaborating again with programmers Matmos, Mark Bell and Mark "Spike" Stent.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Raph Jullien
- SpouseÞór Eldon(1986 - 1987) (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsHildur Rúna HauksdóttirGuðmundur Gunnarsson
- RelativesGunnar Guðmundsson(Grandparent)Hallfríður Guðmundsdóttir(Grandparent)Inga Hrönn Guðmundsdóttir(Sibling)Arnar Sævarsson(Sibling)
- Her hair
- Icelandic accent
- Very quirky sense of fashion
- Unique, almost child-like singing voice
- Almond-shaped eyes
- Was stalked by a man who suffered from severe mental problems. He attempted to kill her by mailing her a book that had been hollowed out and filled with an explosive device. The police intercepted it before she received it. The stalker committed suicide.
- Her favorite housework around the house is washing clothes because that's when a tune usually comes into her head.
- In September 2002, MTV2 ranked her music video Björk: Pagan Poetry (2001) as one of the 20 Most Controversial Videos. It depicts several shots of not only Björk's breasts, but also multiple body piercings on her arms and back.
- Before she was famous, she worked odd jobs at an antiques shop, a bookstore, a Coca-Cola bottling plant where her job was to check for cleanliness, and a fish factory during the easter break in 1984.
- Her name is pronounced "Byerk" (rhymes with "jerk"), not "Byork".
- After winning best actress award at Cannes: "I knew when I said yes that this would be not only my first role but also my last one. I'm very happy that it's to be this one." Asked whether she might one day reconsider, she said: "I have to do records now. I only have 50 years left, and I've got a lot of records to make."
- "The album's very much about being alone in your house, in a very quiet sort of introverted mood and you whisper, you sort of improvise. Which is between me and myself." (about her album 'Vespertine')
- What probably confuses people is they know a lot about me, but it quite pleases me that there's more they don't know.
- Sometimes doing the same thing for a really long time freaks me out, routine freaks me out. But then again, always doing new things can be lazy...it's tricky. I can be very sneaky with myself.
- People are always asking me about eskimos, but there are no eskimos in Iceland.
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